Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Michael and I were watching the first season of Grey's Anatomy the other night and in one of the episodes, they discovered a surgical towel that had been left inside someone's chest from a previous surgery! A TOWEL! I was like, dude, good thing that doesn't happen in real life cause that would be super scary. Turns out it DOES happen! In fact, it is common enough that a company has decided to produce RFID sponges - this way a wand can be waved over a patient which will let the doctor know if there are any sponges remaining inside before sewing the patient up.

I can't imagine being the test subject in this study:

"Hey, how'd you get 100 bucks?"

"Well, my doctor was operating on my abdomen and they hid sponges inside of me before sewing me up. Then they tried to find them. Sortof like a scavenger hunt."

Better use a metal detector, too...imagine the doctor going out to his car after a 12 hour shift only to find he had "misplaced" his keys.